Tiny Cat Defeats Robbers in Box Office Surprise

In a surprise victory, DreamWorks' Puss in Boots won the weekend for the second time in a row, besting the A-list comedy Tower Heist by nearly $10 million.

Yes it seems that America just isn't as interested in getting revenge on Bernie Madoff, at least not the way Brett Ratner envisioned it in Tower Heist. The big-budget comedy, about a bunch of mooks robbing a white collar crook, took in $25 million over the weekend, considerably lower than the number-one film Puss in Boots, which earned $33 million, barely a drop at all from its debut last week. So it seems that, shockingly, people prefer the animated hijinks of a cute little kitty more than they do economic woe-themed comedies starring aging stars (Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick) directed by the genius behind Rush Hour 3. You are ever fickle, America!

Elsewhere at the multiplexes, the 53rd film in the Harold & Kumar series, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, opened with a just-OK $13 million. The movie only cost about $20 million to make, so it shouldn't have trouble recouping with a debut like that, but hopes were higher. (Heh, "higher." Get it? Because the movie is about weed? Grass? Mary Jane? Old Uncle Mellowbones' Kooky Crop?) One also has to factor in that because the movie is in 3D -- and why wouldn't it be in 3D? A movie of this epic scale absolutely demands, nay requires, that extra dimension -- the tickets were more expensive, meaning fewer people attended than it might immediately appear. This might be the end of Harold & Kumar, is what we're saying. And that's probably OK.

Paranormal Activity 3 stumbled in its first post-Halloween weekend, dropping 53 percent. Though, it still made eight million bucks, and has raked in almost $100 million over all, all this on a $5 million budget, so it has nothing to complain about. Justin Timberlake's big action movie debut In Time dropped a respectable 36 percent from its first week for a $7.7 million haul, though the movie doesn't seem to have any buzz or good word-of-mouth around it, which Timberlake, who seems ever needy of fawning public approval, probably views as a disappointment. Better luck next time, you multi-multi-millionaire.

News reports are focusing on the Germanwings pilot's possible depression, following a familiar script in the wake of mass killings. But the evidence shows violence is extremely rare among the mentally ill.